Next week, we’ll be telling you about the real start of the football season. Here’s where somethings stand in the days before the start of one season emphasizes the short life left for another one.
(MIZFB)—The Missouri Tigers will start the season with two starting quarterbacks next weekend. One will start the first half and the other will start the second half.
(MIZ-STATE)—Missouri State is taking a big step this year, moving into the top tier of college football. The Bears make their debut in the really big time with a game next weekend against the Southern Cal Trojans.
(LINCFB)—Lincoln University moves fully into the Great Lakes Valley Conference, hoping to be more competitive that anytime in recent memory. Lincoln was 1-10 last year
Former Blue Tiger “Leapin’ LeMar” Parrish has been elected to the Cincinnati Bengals Ring of Honor Parrish, who played for Lincoln 1966-69.
The Bengals’ announcement of his honor summarizes his career:
Parrish, known as “Leapin’ Lemar,” is remembered by fans as one of the most athletically gifted and exciting players in team history. Recognized for his charismatic personality and flashy attire in the 1970s, his play was just as electrifying. He remains the franchise’s highest scoring defensive player, with touchdown returns recorded on four interceptions, four punts, three fumbles and one kickoff. He boasted an 18.8-yard punt return average in 1974, which still is the best mark by any player in a season since the 1970 NFL/AFL merger. His 90-yard punt return against Washington that season is the second-longest in Bengals history, and it occurred in the same game he returned a fumble recovery 47 yards for a TD. Parrish tallied 25 INTs as a member of the Bengals, the fifth-most in team history, then went on to record 22 more during stints with Washington and Buffalo. His six Pro Bowl selections (1970-71, ’74-77) are the second-most ever by a Bengals defensive player. Parrish is one of six cornerbacks with at least eight Pro Bowls and the only one not in the NFL Hall of Fame.
Parrish joins another Bengal great, Dave Lapham, in joining the Ring of Honor. You can find of interviews of the two men at https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-litmus-caerus&ei=UTF-8&hsimp=yhs-caerus&hspart=litmus&p=lemarr+parrish&type=1476589-vsub-2_25083_2_E0_V_nwtb3#id=7&vid=751e53a6ab0fc80ef86aea0e84314657&action=click
His part of the interview begins at 25:12. Parrish also was he head football coach at his alma mater for four seasons.
Parrish played for Coach Dwight T. Reed, for whom the Lincoln Stadium is named. Reed won 135 of Lincoln’s 248 total wins. He lost only 76 of the 453 school losses. His teams played six of the university’s 25 football ties.
(BASEBALL)—The Royals are surging. The Cardinals are drifting.
(ROYALS)—The Kansas City Royals beat Detroit 10-8 Sunday to avoid a series sweep by the Tigers and to end their five=game winning streak. The win leaves the Royals, winners of seven of their last ten, 67-64, in second place in their division heading into a new week.
Taking the loss for Detroit was former Cardinals star Jack Flaherty, who drops to 7-13. Flaherty had one of his worst outings of the year, giving up seven straight hits that resulted in six Royals runs in the third inning. KC, 7-3 in their last ten games, is three games above .500, in second place in their division.
Royals veteran Salvador Perez no longer has the major league record for most home runs in a season by a player who is primarily a catcher. Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh, who is on a pace to beat Aaron Judge’s American League record of 62 homers, hit his 48th and 49th home run Sunday, breaking his tie with Perez, who hit 48 in 2021.
(CARDINALS)—Cardinals shortstop Masyn Wynn got his second MRI on his left knee in the last two months yesterday.
He did not play Sunday. Wynn says the MRI in July “showed a little something,” and added, “I’m assuming this one’s going to show a little more.” Regardless of the results, he says he’ll “play through it and suck it up.” He says the Cardinals still have a shot at the playoffs “so I want to be out there and playing shortstop as much as I can.”
The Cardinals’ chances of making the playoffs do not appear promising, though. Their Sunday loss to Tampa Bay dropped them to 64-67, five and a half games out of the last wild card playoff slot. It was their eighth loss in their last eleven games.
Cardinals Nation is not taking this season well. The average attendance is its lowest since 1984 as the team continues to be on a track for a mediocre season at best and heads toward the Labor Day weekend showing no signs of breaking out.
Speaking of being on a track—
(INDYCAR)—It has been 39 IndyCar races since the series saw a first-time winner. But Christian Rasmussen stopped that string with a stirring late-race run to win the next-to-last IndyCar race of the year, on the ancient Milwaukee mile.
Rasmussen pitted when a few drops of rain oozed out of the sky and caused a caution flag late in the race.
While race leaders Alex Palou, Scott McLaughlin, and Josef Newgarden stayed out to hold their track positions, Rasmussen and the rest of the field got new tires before getting back on the track with about forty laps to go. Within twenty laps the better grip of the new tires had allowed Rasmussen to catch Palou, swoop past him and pull away to a two-second lead at the end.
Rasmussen, who is in his second year at the top level of American open-wheel competition, had his first career podium finish a few weeks ago at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis. He has posted his first victory in his 30th IndyCar race.
Rasmussen, who drives for Ed Carpenter Racing, outran three drivers from two of the series powerhouses—Palou, who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing, and McLaughlin and Newgarden, who drive for Penske. His win is the first for ECR in more than four years—since Rinus VeeKay won on the Indianapolis Speedway road course in May, 2021.
Palou’s runer-up finish means he no longer has chance of equaling A. J. Foyt’s record of ten victories in a season. Palou has eight wins and a dozen top-three finishes in sixteen races this year.
The IndyCar season wraps up next weekend in Nashville.
(NASCAR-I)—Sixteen NASCAR drivers start their new season next weekend. No matter where the rest of the drivers are in the points now or how many races they win in the next three months, the highest any of them will finish will be 17th.
Ryan Blaney, the Cup champion two years ago, is headed to the ten-race championship runoff on a high after winning the regular seasons concluding race at Daytona Saturday night. His win is the first for Ford since Blaney won in Nashville on June 1.
Blaney shook off a mediocre start this year to finish second in the regular season points. He’ll go into the first playoff race on a roll, with five straight top-ten finishes including the Daytona win.
Two drivers without wins this year have made the sixteen car field==Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman. Blaney finished behind William Byron in the regular season championship points standings. He will start the playoffs as the fourth seed.
Fourteen drivers have victories this year that locked them into the playoffs. If a driver who had not previously won a race this year had won at Daytona Saturday night, Alex Bowman would not have had enough points for the playoffs.
Here are the sixteen drivers who will start the championship run next weekend:
(Left to right: Alex Boman, Josh Berry, Ross Chastian, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Shane Van Gisbergen—the NASCAR Cup—Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, Austin Dillon, Tyler Reddick.
The first three-race elimination round begins next weekend at Darlington. The next playoff race after that is at World Wide Technology Raceway, a few minutes across the river from St. Louis. It’s the first NASCAR playoff race to be held at that track, which has been steadily gaining in importance for NASCAR since owner Curtis Francois kept it from being sold for redevelopment, and reopened it in 2011.
The field of sixteen will be reduced to eight after the next three races. Three more races will eliminate half of those drivers and the next three will leave only two who can race for the championship—-regardless of where they are in the season points standings.
That’s a sore point for some in the garages as well as some in the grandstands, especially after Joey Logano won his third championship last year when he would have been 15th in points if there had been no playoffs. Logano made the playoffs with one win in the regular season but won the title with three wins in the playoffs.
(NASCAR-II)—A big change for Trackhouse Racing was announced before the Daytona Race. Connor Zillish will replace Daniel Suarez. Zilisch is moving up from the NASCAR send tier to join Ross Chastain and Shane Van Gisbergen after having a strong season this year with JR motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s team and is the points leader in that series.
He broke his collarbone in a fall after climbing out of the cockpit to celebrate a win. He drove in Friday night’s Daytona race with s plate in his collarbone, was replaced during the race by Parker Kligerman, who became the first relief driver in 18 years to win a NASAR race.
In the record books, though, the win is Zilisch’s because he started the race in the car. Officially Kligerman remains winless in 122 races but he’ll take Zilisch’s place in the JR Motorsports car next year.
Zilisch is just 19 and already has co-driven cars to class victories in the Daytona 24 Hours and the Sebring 12 Hours.
(Photo credits: Parrish—Cincinnati Bengals; Winn—MLB; Rasmussen car—Rick Gevers; Rasmussen and Blaney—Bob Priddy; Playoff field—NASCAR)